>I found documents in which those who did not attend church were jailed,
was
>that the Virginia Assembly? This document is dated 1710, when Colonial
>Virginia was under the Rule of the Anglican and Episcopalian Church. So
why
>would the General Assembly command people to go to church?  Before
there was
>a General Assembly, the Anglican and Episcopalian Churches were the law
in
>Virginia. Sorry, that is the way it was. Slavery could not have
flourshed
>without the approval of the church. Church law was then adopted by the
>General Assembly, and became the law of the land.  Most historians know
that
>Henings Statutes at Law were a codification of Church law for the
General
>Assembly.

Anita

The short answer here is that, yes, the House of Burgesses WOULD enforce
the Act of Conformity to the Church of England.  Remember that the
Anglican Church was the state church whose head was the monarch and
Virginia was a royal colony  -- attendance, tithing, etc., were
therefore of political significance.

I'm not sure that I agree with your point about Hening's Statutes though
-- he produced that collection well after the Revolution to demonstrate
the historical antecedents for the Commonwealth's legal tradition.

David Kiracofe

David Kiracofe
History Department
MAK 1060
Grand Valley State University
Allendale, MI 49401
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